Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera (warning - may contain triggers)

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5.0/5.0 - Best book that I've read so far this year, and it's a debut novel, to boot. Historical fiction set in 1924 in South Carolina, it's the story of three strong women from different walks of life whose lives intertwine. Annie is the matriarch of the leading family in the town, owner of The Sewing Circle, and mother of 7 children, four who survived childhood and are now adults. She is haunted by the death of her son, Buck, when he committed suicide at the age of twelve. Retta, first generation freed-slave, has worked for the family for years, as did her mother and grandmother before. Gertrude is a poor woman whose husband beats her and her daughters, and drinks away all their money, leaving them to starve. The truths they find out, the actions they talk, the strength they share are told through their three voices. There may be triggers for some, so be aware - domestic abuse, child abuse, murder, suicide, and some historically accurate use of the N-word (view spoiler)[the author addresses this:

I wrestled with whether or not to use the N-word in this novel. It is a word I deeply despise, but to avoid it felt dishonest to the place and time. Historically...it has been used as a tool to systematically degrade and dehumanize an entire race of people. To ignore its existence is to ignore the plight of what the African American community has endured at the hands of the white majority. I've used the word sparingly in these pages to demonstrate the low moral arc of a society...p. 343 in the background notes

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AtY #40: A book with flowers or greenery on the cover
Book 68 of 2021

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